Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to get a woman pregnant.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1231: C.19–early 20.

2. to perform a marriage ceremony, to join in marriage.

1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 158: A comelier couple parson has seldom, if ever, tied up.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 July 3/5: [He] offered half-a-dollar honorarium if he'd stretch a point and tie ’em up.

3. to get married; to cohabit; thus tie-up n., marriage.

1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 184: Such was the tie-up between Sporting betsey and Gooseberry jemmy in the Holy Land.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 4: The only wonder to me is how she ever happened to tie herself up to that slob.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 85: Tied Up, married.
1899		Howard & Everard [perf. Gus Elen] ‘’E’ ’as my Symperfy 🎵 The boys was tellin’ me just nah, quite in a laughin’ way / That my old pal Bob Smifkins, ’e was tied up yesterday / [...] / ‘Who’s ’e married? pon my life. Who kidded him to take a wife?’.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 30: Even now they say I’m a fool to tie up with you.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 60: After a Man has Tied Up for a while, he [...] is prone to imagine that all the Unmarried Boys are having one long Crimson Jollification.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 47: Oh, why did I ever tie up with such a onery thing as you?
1917		R. Lardner ‘The Water Cure’ in Gullible’s Travels 161: Bess and Mr. Bishop wants to tie up.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 220: ‘How’s about us tying up together?’ ‘Whatchew mean? Tallying along? Going case and working the knock-off two-handed?’ ‘Garn. [...] I’m arsting you to marry me and you do no more you turn round and start talking about the crook.’.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 124: Phony as the made-up broads in the movies [...] When you tie up with them everyone’s trying to horn in.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 29: My half-brother Vern, who Mum had [...] seven years before she tied up with my poppa.
1966		‘Tom Pendleton’ Iron Orchard (1967) 257: I never should have let you tie up with me.

4. (US) to live, to inhabit.

1856

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: Not far from No. 4 there is a nest where a woman ties up [...] It is said to be a resort of both colors, though dark lanterns predominate.

5. to associate with, to join in partnership.

1892		F. Remington letter 26 July in Splete Sel. Letters (1988) 147: America is much maligned and I ‘tie right up to her.’.
1903		N.Y. Eve. Post 5 Dec. 1: When a representative has a navy yard in his district, [...] [he can] make a business for that yard [...] by tying up with the other navy yard representatives on the committee [DA].
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 91: Emily Skinner, who by this time had tied up with the Phony Kid and his wife.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘How did she happen to tie up with Suds?’.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 72: You tied up with some fast company, didn’t you.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 122: Doc tied up with Ma and Brother Freddie and Alvin Karpis in a hideout.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 64: If Oscar left anything that will tie Lee up wouldn’t you want me to get it?
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 65: If they tie up with them Reds and start anything, the white folks’ll take care of ’em good and plenty.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 26: Nobby’s world is one where survival counts above all – whether it is from selling stolen goods, tying up the barrow boys, ‘bunging’ a shop assistant a couple of pounds.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 171: How’d you tie up with them anyway?

6. (US carnival) to obtain employment.

1939		Goodman & Kolodin Kingdom of Swing 104: Because he was a good promoter and usually had plenty of work lined up, musicians were glad to tie up with him.
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 6: ‘Listen, you can tie up, easy. The model show needs a talker’.

7. (W.I.) to secure a (usu. male) partner’s affections, to make infatuated.

1974

C. Loken Come Monday Morning 67: He’d’a probably been tryin’ to do the same thing if he hadn’t’ve already had her tied up.

8. to link two people, ideas etc. together.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 124: The dicks tied me up with the robbery, and found out about the strong box.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 214: Then they won’t tie up that the bloke who asked where the station was bought a ticket to wherever the hell it is.
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 112: Even if there wasn’t a thing down there to point to your wife, the cops would tie her up to Lavery.

9. to have a relationship with.

1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 139: I’ve been looking at [women] for thirty-nine years and I haven’t tied up with one yet.
1951		D. Dressler Parole Chief 124: I’ve also known parolees to tie up with the wrong woman.